Heavy is the crown but it’s nothing that the best League of Legends team in the world can’t handle.
The O2 Arena in London, UK, erupted yesterday after South Korea’s T1 won the decisive teamfight against China’s Bilibili Gaming making them Worlds 2024 champions. With this victory, T1 have successfully defended their title and have added a fifth trophy in their already impressive collection.
The showdown between China’s all-natural first-seed team and the perceived fourth-best South Korean team delivered on all fronts. From dominating displays of skill to massive clutch plays, both teams showed that they deserved to be world champions.
Unfortunately, there could only be one and on the back of the legendary Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, T1 secures the win from Bilibili after a nail-biting five-game series.
T1 being seen as the fourth-best team wasn’t a mistake, by the way. Coming into the tournament, very few people would have guessed that they would be Worlds 2024 champions. They may be the defending champions but T1’s performance this year has been shaky at best. T1 were even on the brink of not making Worlds, with rivals KT Rolster possibly taking their place instead. Couple that with Faker’s recurring wrist and arm problems and we’ve got low expectations for our defending world champions.
But, as T1 has shown time and again, they’re just different beasts when it comes to international competitions. They had an impressive showing during the Swiss stage, coming out with a 3-1 record. Then they made good on two of their most impressive Worlds stats: always making it to at least the semifinals and having a 100% series win rate against China.
It just goes to show that you can never count T1 out, no matter what form they look like.
Truly Unkillable
Despite being the inaugural inductee to the Hall of Legends earlier this year, Faker’s showing that there’s still more to write in his story. In this tournament, he became the first player to achieve 100 wins on the Worlds stage. He’s also the first player to achieve 500 kills on the Worlds stage as well.
Even after 11 years of playing professionally, Faker’s still proving why he’s the undisputed GOAT of League of Legends. He’s made it to Worlds nine times and has now won five out of the seven times he’s made it to the finals. And if we’re not counting the times South Korea won with Faker, he has more World championships than any region.
He’s a real living legend and we’re all excited to see what he can achieve next.
Banner photo from LoL Esports.